


Enjoy the Ride

by MrsWalkerWrites (Joyfulnerd)



Category: Choices: Open Heart, Choices: Stories You Play
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Friends With Benefits, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-25
Updated: 2019-02-25
Packaged: 2019-11-05 17:53:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17923559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joyfulnerd/pseuds/MrsWalkerWrites
Summary: Just a one shot of Bryce and Jeanie enjoying their friends with benefits arrangement and the possibility of something more.





	Enjoy the Ride

The sound of her phone rattling on the nightstand beside her pulls Jeanie from a deep, dreamless sleep. She picks it up and silences it as she swings her legs out from under the heavy duvet. Stretching one arm above her head, she smothers a yawn with the other. Months ago, back when she was young and naive, she actually thought med school was the most exhausting, demanding experience she’d ever have, but those years were nothing compared to being an 1st year resident at Edenbrook. She’s never been so tired, so stressed, or so fulfilled in her life. She loves it more than she ever imagined. Despite the longing to curl back up in bed for another few days, she’s excited to get back to the hospital.

Jeanie opens up the Dryve app and quickly orders a ride to Edenbrook before she starts picking up her clothes from various spots on the floor where they’d been tossed last night. She manages to find her underwear, bra, and off-the-shoulder black sweater relatively easily, so she’s half dressed and searching for her jeans when a deep, teasing voice calls out to her from the bed.

“Just where do you think you’re going, Dr. Espinoza?”

Jeanie looks up and smiles at the drowsy eyes, mussed hair, and sleepy smile of Bryce Lahela. He sits up and the duvet drops to his waist, revealing the expanse of his broad chest. How he finds time to hit the gym is completely beyond her. He stretches his arms above his head Jeanie gets momentarily distracted from her task at hand by the way his muscles elongate and go taut across his arms and torso. _Good god_ , she thinks to herself It’s completely unfair how good he looks in the early morning. Without even trying, he looks effortlessly sexy and at ease. Just like the first day she met him, she feels a stab of jealousy at the way he seems unaffected by the pressures of their jobs and then chastises herself silently. She knows Bryce plays it cool and is cool and comfortable in his own skin most of the time, but even he’s not immune to the stress. In fact, it was a particularly rough day that had started this whole thing between them.

There had always been a fun flirtation between her and Bryce, but it was nothing more than that for the first couple of months at Edenbrook. Then, one shift she’d spent hours with a patient, an elderly gentleman with lung cancer. He’d made it very clear that he was happy with the life he lived and he was done fighting the disease that had ravaged his body. He was alone with no family and no close friends to stay with him in his last hours, so Jeanie had come back to his room and spent every spare moment she had with him listening to his stories and just being with him as he slowly faded. Just before her shift ended, Gerald had taken his last breath with only her to keep him company.

That night, Jeanie had managed to hold it together until she got over to Donahue’s. She ordered a double gin and tonic, found a booth in the back, and let herself cry silently in the dim light of the dive bar. Gerald was the first patient she’d lost and though it was far less distressing than it could have been, and in fact, was rather peaceful, it was still devastating for her. She’s not sure how long she’d been at Donahue’s nursing that drink before she’d heard Bryce’s voice at the bar ordering a shot of whiskey and then another. He’d knocked them back in quick succession before turning around and she’d waved him over with a weak smile. Bryce had ordered another drink and slid into the booth across from her without a word, uncharacteristically silent as they’d sipped their drinks. 

Eventually, Bryce had hoarsely told her that he’d lost a patient that day too. A young woman in for a cholecystectomy. _“Routine. Simple. Common,” Bryce had laughed bitterly. “Unless, you fuck up and knick an artery and your 27-year-old bleeds out on the table.”_ Unable to find the words, Jeanie had simply reached across the table and taken Bryce’s hand, holding it tightly as he’d stared at his drink with a grim expression on his handsome features. The two of them sat in that dingy booth for hours, drinking a lot and barely talking at all. When closing time came, they’d gone back to his place and spent the night together. It hadn’t been particularly good that night and really Jeanie remembers very little of it beyond touches clumsy from alcohol and the desperate need to feel something other than pain, but it had been a release for both of them. They’d woken up together, nursed their hangovers, and a new connection had been forged between them. Work kept both Jeanie and Bryce too busy to consider this thing a real boyfriend/girlfriend relationship, but they gave each other a chance to relieve some stress and have a little fun…okay, a hell of a lot of fun when they aren’t completely drunk off their asses and lost in grief and emotion, and for now, that was enough.

A sudden buzz from her phone tells Jeanie that her ride has nearly arrived and with a muttered curse, she resumes her search for her jeans.

“I’m going to the hospital,” she answers him as she comes around to his side of the bed and digs through the piles of clothes. Bryce is a lot of things; neat is not one of them. “Edenbrook? Maybe you’ve heard of it. That place where we spend 90% of our lives?”

“Sounds vaguely familiar,” Bryce says and then raises a questioning eyebrow at her, “but I thought you had today off?”

“I did…ah ha!” Jeanie exclaims and raises her jeans above her head victoriously, “but I took a shift for one of the other interns.”

“Well, that is extraordinarily disappointing,” Bryce pouts at her for a moment before a mischievous glint sparks in his eyes. Before Jeanie can react, he reaches out and grabs the leg of her jeans and uses them to pull her onto the bed with him. She squeals and then laughs as he rolls over to cover her, kissing and nipping at her neck playfully while she wriggles beneath him.

“Bryce! You ass,” Jeanie laughs, “I have to get to work!”

“Too bad,” Bryce grins. “I was expecting to have you all to myself today and I had plans for you.”

His voice drops to a low, husky whisper and he bites down on her earlobe just hard enough to make Jeanie gasp. His hand slides over the curves of her breast, hot through the open weave of her sweater. He strokes down the length of her body and his long, deft fingers tease between her thighs and Jeanie arches up with a moan.

“Bry,” she breathes and cradles the back of his head, pulling him into a long deep kiss. She can feel Bryce smiling against her lips when they part. She stares into his brown eyes and is surprised by the flicker of tenderness she sees in them. It’s more intense than it has been in the past and a frisson of excitement tinged with a bit of fear runs through her. Relationships aren’t exactly her…thing. She’s sabotaged or ruined too many of them with her drive and ambition. Being a doctor is all she’s wanted since she was a kid and her refusal to let anything, even love, get in the way has cost her a lot.

“Jeanie, you’re going to the dark place. I can see it in your eyes. Come back…come back…come back…” Bryce mimics an echo as he tucks a stray hair behind her ear. Jeanie giggles and starts to pull him down into another kiss as her phone buzzes once again.

“Oh, shit, I really have to go,” Jeanie struggles out from under Bryce, letting him flop back on the bed behind her as she gets up and wriggles into her jeans.

She rushes out of the bedroom and into the living room/kitchen of Bryce’s prewar loft. She nabs her purse from the floor near the front door, digs out a hair clip and forces her thick hair into it. When she picks up her black boots to pull them on, she hops in place and nearly falls over in her rush.

“Don’t hurt yourself, doc,” Bryce teases as he catches her just before she falls against the wall. His strong arms steady her easily and Jeanie shoots him a grateful smile as she zips up her boots.

“Thanks for the save, scalpel jockey,” she winks at him as she reaches for the door knob. “See you later!”

“Hey, wait,” Bryce catches her arm and pulls her around to face him, a surprisingly serious look on his face. “You know I totally understand the whole devotion to the job thing and your drive and ambition are crazy impressive and super hot and all that, but don’t burn yourself out, Jeanie, okay?”

Jeanie smiles softly at Bryce and the concern in his voice. She stands on her tiptoes and gives him as lingering a kiss as she dares with the time crunch she’s under. His hands land on her hips as he kisses her back thoroughly until she breaks the kiss and steps back.

“I promise, Bry. Thanks for looking out for me.”

“Well, someone’s got to,” Bryce shrugs, “You’re a bit of a menace to yourself, Dr. Espinoza.”

Jeanie throws back her head and laughs, “Don’t I know it. Good thing I have you, Dr. Lahela.”

“Yeah, it is.”

Bryce’s cocky grin is the last thing Jeanie sees before she nearly runs out the door and down the stairs to her rather annoyed Dryve driver. She apologizes as she throws herself in the backseat and tries to take a few breaths and slow her racing heart. Deep within her purse, she hears the muffled buzz of her phone and pulls it out. There’s a series of texts from Bryce.

**I’m actually off today unlike other unnamed workaholics, so if you want I’ll bring you some pho from that place around the corner. Around 7:30?**

**If I’m not sleeping.**

**Which we both know I might be. #scalpeljockeylife**

Jeanie giggles and quickly sends a text back to him.

**Stop using hashtags, Bryce. You’re a doctor for god’s sake.**

**And, yes, please. That pho will give me the strength to survive this shift.** 💪🍜

Jeanie’s heart feels warm and happy at the thought of sharing dinner with Bryce tonight. She knows at some point she’s going to have address the fact that Bryce Lahela has become her favorite person in her world, but for now she’s just going to enjoy the ride.


End file.
